The new year is just one month young and one of the biggest tournaments in CS:GO for 2018 is already in the books: mousesports claimed Legends status at the ELEAGUE Boston Major.

Becoming Legends in Boston

The new year is just one month young and one of the biggest tournaments in CS:GO for 2018 is already in the books: mousesports claimed Legends status at the ELEAGUE Boston Major.

The bigger, the better?

For the first time ever, the Major was held with 24 instead of 16 teams. The previous qualifier stage was embedded right into the official Major, as the eight legendary teams from Kraków last year were set to join the tournament one week later, in the second of three stages.

For mousesports, who claimed 12th place in Poland, the tournament started in the New Challengers Stage, early in January. After getting back in shape in a six day long bootcamp in the teams headquarter in Cologne (Germany), the team went to Turner Broadcasting Studios in Atlanta.

Two victories over AVANGAR & NaVi into the tournament, mousesports suffered their first defeat to Cloud9 on Train, postponing their expected qualification for the second stage to the last day. Another loss in overtime set mousesports with their backs against the wall: do or die in their fifth and final match. A 16:04 victory over the Australian team Renegades granted team captain Chris „chrisJ“ de Jong and his squad a spot in the New Legends Stage.

Super Sweet Sixteen! We're up and away into the 2018 Boston Major Legends Stage, after a rollercoaster ride through the first stage. Drama in five rounds, but all gucci. ✌️#ELEAGUEMajor

Legends go down, as Challengers rise

Joined by the eight Legends teams from Kraków, the eight best Challengers were set to outrun the teams that were starting to play just now. Mousesports was starting strong, as they were able to net their first victory over former Major champion Astralis, in a 16:02 landslide victory on Cache.

After losing to SK Gaming on Mirage on day two, the team quickly recovered against Vega Squadron, winning Mirage 16:03 in convincing fashion. Sitting on a 2-1 record, mousesports needed just one more win out of their remaining two games. But the last one is obviously the hardest, and the 2018 ELEAGUE Boston Major was no different for mouz.

Facing Quantum Bellator Fire, an unknown team who surprised anyone during the Major with two quick wins in their opening matches of the New Legends Stage, mousesports went into the game as the heavy favorites and everything was set to finally reach the much desired Legends spot, especially since mouz orchestrated a blazing 12:3 half time lead on Train. But it all came the other way: QBF cemented the probably biggest comeback, as mousesports saw round after round and the Legends status slipping away from their fingers. In the end, a crushing 14:16 defeat sent mouz into the worst mental state possible, before their most important match, the deciding game against Space Soldiers.

Dealing with pressure

One more game to glory or bitter defeat. While mousesports came off a heartbreaking 14:16 defeat after a 13:2 half time lead, their opponents Space Soldiers managed to take a convincing win over BIG in the previous round. Just one match before, Cloud9’s Skadoodle pulled off his first CS:GO Major playoff attendance after several failed attempts - now it was up to team captain Chris „chrisJ“ de Jong to succeed. A close first half saw SpaceS ahead with 8:7 and yet another pistol round win for the Turkish team.

Mousesports clawed their way back into the game, leading 14:13 as T on Mirage, when suddenly the team’s main AWPer Tomas „oskar“ Stastny decided to call a B rush, because the previous slow clutch rounds really drained his energy, as he stated after the match. And since it worked so well, mousesports went on to close the game with a yet another B rush, to advance to the top 8 of the 2018 Boston Major and finally awarded themselves with the much desired Legends status.

Facing FaZe in the quarterfinals

Travelling all the way from Atlanta to Boston, the ELEAGUE Major playoffs were set to take place in the Agganis Arena at Boston University. The battle between mouz and FaZe was nothing new to fans or players alike. Both teams met multiple times during the last weeks in ESL Pro League, ECS Regular season and ultimately the ECS Season 4 Grand Final in Cancun.

In the end, it was the close game everyone expected, as FaZe was able to narrowly take the first map, Nuke, in overtime, after mousesports failed to close the map when they had the chance. On Cache, FaZe was able to pull off a 16:09 victory over mouz to close the series 2:0, knocking the German-based team out of the tournament.